Merzbow

How does one review a Merzbow album? Either you know what you’re getting into or you don’t. Forty-one minutes and 28 seconds of Masami Akito’s trademark noise manipulations recorded live at No Fun Fest in Brooklyn, NY and remixed in his bedroom in Tokyo is something the average listener will have no reason to invest in. Fans of the outer potential of dissonant feedback manipulation will no doubt already have some form of appreciation for Merzbow’s grating, yet immersive, experiments and this recording will change few opinions, but is nevertheless a great example of the form’s finer work. Haunting gurgles of modulating wave forms combat sheets of white noise and stuttering metallic sirens through a thick haze of harmonic resonance and coughing static filters. It’s like being swept through the internal plumbing of an android’s circulatory system, only to be ejected into a jittering rave hosted by computer modems locked in dial-up purgatory.